With the increase in popularity of travel and outdoor camping activities, there has been a corresponding increase in the use of trailer mounted camping tents as a convenient method of transporting and setting up a tent. Some tent trailers are of a "pop-up" design, in which the trailer bed area is relatively large and the tent is expanded primarily vertically from the trailer bed during set-up. The pop-up designs offer certain advantages, but are often difficult to transport with a small vehicle. Other tent trailer designs utilize a trailer bed of small area with a "fold-out" or collapsible tent which sets up to encompass a larger area within the tent. Such general design has been known in the art for some time, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 1,216,986 to Habig, U.S. Pat. No. 1,564,257 to Lippman, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,216,553 to Greene, et.al. While such arrangements do provide for more spacious tent enclosures, the prior art exemplified by the noted examples makes no specific provision for any sort of recessed storage accessible from within the erected tent enclosure.
Other of the collapsible tent trailer designs provide a storage space in the trailer portion, below the tent with the tent collapsed for transportation. In some designs of the prior art, the storage areas are not accessible from within the erected tent enclosure, and accessibility with the tent collapsed may be difficult and cumbersome. In other designs known in the prior art, illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 2,459,026 to Hardy and U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,363 to Palmer, a storage space accessible from within the erected tent enclosure is provided, but such storage space is not accessible with the tent in a collapsed position. Another variant, illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 2,513,411 to Heil, provides a shallow storage space accessible from one side from both within the erected tent and from the exterior of the tent with the tent collapsed upon the trailer. However, the limitation of side access to a shallow, deep storage area is often very inconvenient, making it difficult to see and reach objects stored at the opposite side of the compartment.
Many of the prior art designs for fold-out tent enclosures provide an elevated sleeping area and a small area with its floor at or near ground level. The U.S. patents to Hardy, Palmer, and Heil are examples of this approach, which has the advantage of allowing users of the tent to stand upright within a portion of the tent enclosure. However, the designs of the prior art uniformly utilize a floor frame which is pivotally interconnected to the body of the associated trailer or vehicle, and which is often difficult to set up on uneven ground surfaces. Since one of the major purposes of tent trailers is use in rugged areas, that difficulty or disadvantage is significant.
Thus there remains a need for tent trailer which provides a relatively spacious tent enclosure, provides a storage area readily accessible both from within and from without the tent enclosure, and which is easily erected on uneven ground surfaces.